Junkies

Good news for all you earnest economy watchers out there. The U.S. Census Bureau today released its first mobile app called "America's Economy. " The Census built the app with some nifty features, such as notifications and social sharing to Twitter and Facebook. Now you can spread the joys and pitfalls of the U.S. economy with friends, family and followers! You'll have easy access to the following 16 key indicators: Advance Monthly Retail Sales; New Residential Construction; New Residential Sales; Construction Spending; International Trade; Advance Report Durable Goods; Business Inventories; Manufacturers' Goods; Monthly Wholesale; Homeownership Rate; Quarterly Services Survey; QFR - Retail Trade; QFR - Manufacturing; Gross Domestic Product; Personal Income and Outlays; Unemployment Rate.

I am a college baseball junkie, and ESPN has given me all the coverage I can handle and then some the last three weeks. The incredible run by the University Maryland, my alma mater, has been icing on the cake and a cherry on top of that. But, honestly, I could watch the Anteaters from the University of California - Irvine beat the Oklahoma State Cowboys any night of the week. And I didn't miss one Texas Tech game streamed or on-air. I'll see them both in the College World Series from Omaha next weekend.

By Robert A. Erlandson and Robert A. Erlandson,Baltimore County Bureau of The Sun | November 12, 1991

Long before the doors to their meeting place opened, the "shellac junkies" were in a feeding frenzy outside, feverishly seeking something old that is new.Pawing through the boxes of old records they flipped the discs, checking labels, songs and artists for something to add to their collections.The energetic buying, selling and swapping are hallmarks of the monthly meeting of the Vintage Record Club of Baltimore."Everyone is always looking for something new. It's addictive," said club president and co-founder Frank Wiedefeld, 58, of Hamilton.

An ESPN producer pledged to Sports Illustrated earlier this week that former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis' contribution to the network's NFL draft coverage tonight will be similar to his playing career: Lewis will be, if nothing else, incredibly well prepared. “This guy was a film junkie as a player,” senior coordinating producer Seth Markman told SI.com's Richard Deitsch earlier this week . “I don't care about Ray calling people around the league,” he said. “I want his opinion on guys as he watches tape.

ALTHOUGH most of us take it for granted, the average personal computer packs far more typesetting horsepower than the best-equipped print shops could muster a couple of decades ago. Fire up Microsoft Word, and you'll find dozens of typefaces, in an infinite variety of sizes. Install a graphics or desktop publishing program, and you'll find dozens more. For old-timers who love the printed word and remember the clunky days of typewriters, this technology at one's fingertips still has the feel of magic.

Fairfax, Va. -- It's best not to cross The Junkies. The four guys who host a three-hour midday chat show on WJFK radio here are not what you would call vicious. Much of their banter, about sports, women and the youth they shared, is deliberately sophomoric. But any listener dumb enough to call in and challenge anything they've said on the air is instantly labeled a "doofus" and cut off with the noxious, conclusive sound of a flushing toilet. Such pleasantries - with attendant guffaws, taunts and jeers - will be part of the Baltimore area's mornings starting on Jan. 3, when The Junkies take over the slot on WHFS (under its new frequency, 105.7 FM)

If you were a "Twin Peaks" junkie, then David Lynch's movie prequel, "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," will be a wallow in Peak culture so intense your circuits will lock up. It may turn you into the Log Lady.If you didn't get it then, you're not going to get it now.Lynch's specialty seems to be conjuring imagery that is deeply unsettling, but in odd ways. He's not some twisted gross-out master; he likes to creep up on you, as if he's working sideways, insinuating his way into your consciousness until he's ready to completely disconnect you from reality.

In response to letter writer Kitty Deimel's comments about "where were the developers when these vacant houses were 'shoot up' housing for the neighborhood junkies" ("Vampire developers devour city farms," June 27), I'd ask her: Where were the neighbors when the junkies started taking over the neighborhood? It's easy to blame city government and uncaring (except when it comes to money) developers for not cleaning up our neighborhoods and our city but where were we when the dealers moved onto our corners?

There was once a legal secretary named Missy, who had pearls around her neck and needle marks on her arms and went into basements on Kirk Avenue. And there was Earl, who stole from department stores with a clipboard in his hand, and Butch, who climbed through windows in South Baltimore. Nothing personal, they just had habits they needed to support.Get used to these people. This is the newest message on narcotics addiction, as City Hall alerts us to the obvious: After 25 years of a so-called war on drugs, it's time to admit that drugs have won.Forget that business about getting junkies off the hard stuff.

If we build it, they will come.That's the philosophy that's kept the Republican and Democratic national conventions in the television camera's eye every four years since 1948, even as those throwing them became more and more savvy about TV (and less and less interesting to viewers and the networks).There's grumbling this year among network news people about the cost of covering an essentially non-news event. "We're bringing in 300 people, and we could do this with a couple of cameras," one said this week.

For Becky Perlow, the next destination looms 19,341 feet above sea level. The goal? Reaching the top of Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, located 3 degrees south of the equator and deemed by many the highest free-standing and "walkable" mountain in the world. That's easier said than done, but Perlow's father, Howard, said he thinks his daughter will make it. "When she sets a goal, she usually finds a way to complete that goal," he said. Since 1991, Kilimanjaro-goers have been legally required to climb with a guide, so Perlow, 26, is hitting the hillside with the travel organization Adventures Within Reach and three other climbers, excluding the guides.

Next weekend, while sane people in Baltimore are barbecuing in the backyard, I'll be in Oregon with 11 friends. We're going for a run. The route starts at 6,000 feet on the slopes of Mount Hood. Twenty-eight hours later, we expect to finish on a wide, wind-swept beach at the Oregon Coast. In between, traveling in two large vans, we'll be running along highways and on trails and back roads for 198 miles. One runner then another. Day then night then day. The much-anticipated occasion is the 32nd Hood to Coast Relay, a colossal adventure in people-moving and the largest running relay in the world.

In response to letter writer Kitty Deimel's comments about "where were the developers when these vacant houses were 'shoot up' housing for the neighborhood junkies" ("Vampire developers devour city farms," June 27), I'd ask her: Where were the neighbors when the junkies started taking over the neighborhood? It's easy to blame city government and uncaring (except when it comes to money) developers for not cleaning up our neighborhoods and our city but where were we when the dealers moved onto our corners?

Ellen Zipper's summer Saturdays start early. Throughout the season, the Owings Mills resident rises around 5 a.m. She checks her computer, visiting Craigslist for the umpteenth time that week, making last-minute adjustments to her plans for the day. Around 7, with a strategy in place, she boards her white minivan, heading out for a warm morning tour of Baltimore County and Baltimore City yard sales, consignment shops and flea markets, hoping...

Good news for all you earnest economy watchers out there. The U.S. Census Bureau today released its first mobile app called "America's Economy. " The Census built the app with some nifty features, such as notifications and social sharing to Twitter and Facebook. Now you can spread the joys and pitfalls of the U.S. economy with friends, family and followers! You'll have easy access to the following 16 key indicators: Advance Monthly Retail Sales; New Residential Construction; New Residential Sales; Construction Spending; International Trade; Advance Report Durable Goods; Business Inventories; Manufacturers' Goods; Monthly Wholesale; Homeownership Rate; Quarterly Services Survey; QFR - Retail Trade; QFR - Manufacturing; Gross Domestic Product; Personal Income and Outlays; Unemployment Rate.

Anything that is run by the state of Maryland is one big mess. Tuesday evening I and hundreds of others waited for almost one hour (50 minutes to be exact) for a northbound train from Camden Yards. In the meantime five trains came southbound! When a train finally came it was standing room only, and only a very few of those hundreds waiting could get on. You can imagine with the Red Sox in town how many people there were trying to take a train. This is outrageous in itself, but on a regular basis there is no one checking tickets, and the trains, as far as I can tell, are just being run for junkies and flunkies to ride for free!

Anything that is run by the state of Maryland is one big mess. Tuesday evening I and hundreds of others waited for almost one hour (50 minutes to be exact) for a northbound train from Camden Yards. In the meantime five trains came southbound! When a train finally came it was standing room only, and only a very few of those hundreds waiting could get on. You can imagine with the Red Sox in town how many people there were trying to take a train. This is outrageous in itself, but on a regular basis there is no one checking tickets, and the trains, as far as I can tell, are just being run for junkies and flunkies to ride for free!

One day you've got a mansion, a driver, a primo gig. The next: "No house, no car, no job." That's how Bob Ehrlich summed up his situation on the radio a couple days after his Election Day defeat. It's not as bleak as it sounds. For one thing, the Ehrlichs made sure they didn't get used to the "artificial life" of Government House. "The big joke around here is we have great chefs and I live on energy bars and Rice Krispies," the governor told The Junkies on WHFS Friday. Which isn't to say Ehrlich doesn't appreciate the stately digs where his family spent the last four years.

By Jill Rosen and Sam Sessa and Jill Rosen and Sam Sessa and,jill.rosen@baltsun.com and sam.sessa@baltsun.com | November 6, 2008

For month after month after exhausting, exhilarating month, Catharine Robertson took her first sip of morning coffee while gazing at political Web sites. National Public Radio, which she kept on almost every waking moment, became her life soundtrack, and political bloggers her best friends. So when Barack Obama won the presidential election Tuesday night, ending Robertson's constant stream of hypotheticals, life as she'd come to know it essentially stopped. She and millions of other hard-core election-data addicts woke up yesterday asking: Now what?

By JEAN MARBELLA and JEAN MARBELLA,jean.marbella@baltsun.com | November 2, 2008

Look, over there, you can see it from here! No, not Russia from Alaska, but the finish line. It's hard to believe not just that the end of the presidential campaign season is actually in sight, but that we're all going to have to find something else to do come Wednesday. In the spirit of those who have jumped the gun and published their postmortems - or pre-mortems, actually - on a race that won't be decided until Tuesday, I'm already feeling nostalgic for the campaign. Somehow, it managed to capture the worst of both a marathon (the length)